UNITED NATIONS - Reform is not enough for Syria, it needs change, according to new U.N.-Arab League special envoy, Lakhdar Brahimi. The envoy made the remarks after briefing the Security Council Monday on his recent trip to the region.
U.N.-Arab League Special Envoy Lakhdar Brahimi said the situation in Syria, where more than 20,000 people have died, more than a million have been made homeless, and more than two million are in need of urgent humanitarian assistance, is extremely bad and getting worse. But he said he hopes to find an opening for progress soon.
“I refuse to believe that reasonable people do not see that you cannot go backward . That you cannot go back to the Syria of the past. But, I told everyone in Damascus and elsewhere, that reform is not enough anymore, what is needed is change," he said.
After taking up his post three weeks ago, following Kofi Annan’s resignation, Brahimi went to Damascus, Cairo, and to refugee camps in Turkey and Jordan.
He repeated that he has no formal plan for achieving a breakthrough, but the veteran diplomat said he has a few ideas and plans to return to the region soon. Until he has a plan, he said he would continue working with Kofi Annan’s six-point peace plan and the June 30 communique of a meeting of states in Geneva that urged a cessation of hostilities and movement toward a political transition.
The former Algerian foreign minister and U.N. diplomat also acknowledged the divisions within the Syrian opposition, but said they are working to bridge their differences. “I know that the members of Syrian opposition are still trying. Their attempts have been disappointing until now, I am sure they will not mind me saying so. I think their friends also are encouraging them to do better," he said.
Brahimi also acknowledged the paralysis in the U.N. Security Council on Syria, where Russia and China have three times used their veto to block Council action, saying if he is not seen as representing a united Council he is “nothing.”